


Prisoner

by Lucifer_BringerofLight



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28010112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucifer_BringerofLight/pseuds/Lucifer_BringerofLight
Summary: Raphaela is a jumper for the National Guard, working to get into Military Service. On her way to achieve that, she meets John Sheppard, in prison. He claims to be innocent and that he didn't even get a court hearing, but that was impossible, wasn't it? But the more time passes the more she wittneses what should be imposible. Until, one day, she faces an impossible decision. Can she give up everything she worked for or will she stay put?





	1. Chapter 1

Why did she always end up being the one with prison duty? It was the most boring job in the entire National Guard. Then again, having to protect the council members couldn’t be better. Some of them had less personal life than a corps. Still, Raphaela hated prison duty more than everything.

“Oh, stop pouting, Rapha, I would gladly do prison duty. Instead I’ll be stuck in the court. An entire month!”

Joshua, one of her two best friends, rolled his eyes. Since they got their allocation yesterday, Raphaela had been in a bad mood. So, had he, because court duty meant staying in the court room all day long, listing to criminals protesting their innocence. Exhausting.

“Court is better than prison. At least you get to hear some drama. I’ll have to listen to them whine about everything. Again! It’s the fifth time I’ve got prison in the last eleven months. What did I do?”

“A good job, maybe?”

Until now, Georgia had listen silently. In her opinion, both her friends behaved childishly. She had instruction duty. Her favourite kind. It meant she could spent the next month on academy grounds and train the novices. Josh’s favourite was operator protection, while Rapha preferred actual military service.

At the end of this year, which was this month, they could apply for their preferred position. If they were qualified, they would get the job, unless too many applied. If their application would be denied, they would be assigned another duty. Military service was the most prestigious job in the entire country and therefore only very few got selected to do it. Second to it was prison duty and third was operator protection. For most people, being allocated as prison guard more than once would have been a great honour. But Raphaela aspired higher things. For her, only the best was good enough.

“I’ll end as prison guard, I just know it.”

“You have a good feeling for such things, Langley.”

Their instructor and supervisor, Jefferson, sat down next to them. He was a very handsome man, somewhere in his late twenties. Which was one of the reasons why he was as popular as only very few other instructors. Another reason was, that even though he was strict, he was very fair and usually didn’t privilege anyone. Well, that was until Raphaela had come along. From the first time that he had seen her, she had been his favourite. And since Rapha was quite clever, she had realized that soon. But she had never tried to gain anything from that. She would rather fail in grace, than get where she wanted to go by cheating, she had told her friends over and over again. Which was only partly true, she wouldn’t cheat, but Raphaela had no intention of failing whatsoever.

“Oh c’mon, we didn’t even apply yet and they already decided?!”

“I’m sorry, Rapha, I’ve tried telling them you’re the best, but they didn’t agree. No one will get into military service this year.”

Surprised, Raphaela blinked at Jefferson. For the last five years she had broken one record after another, there were only few she hadn’t broken yet and she was still working on that. She was the best of her year.

“If you ask me, they’re trying to shut the military down.”

“Don’t say that too loud, Redfield, if it’s not true, you can lose your chances of getting into protection, if it is true, however, you can lose way more.”

“Whatever, I have to go. See you next weekend.”

“I can drive you, Rapha, I have to be at the prison for a meeting anyways.”

“Thanks, Jeff.”

As they walked away from Josh and Georgia, Josh shook his head. He and Georgie had been waiting for them to get together for almost five years now. It was obvious that Jefferson liked their friend a lot. When they had left academy a year ago, they had been sure that it was a matter of weeks ‘til it happened. But it hadn’t and they were a little disappointed.

Raphaela, of course, knew of her friends plans and she knew, that Josh wanted nothing more than see them married. But she had no intention of granting him this wish. Not because she didn’t like Jeff, but because she wanted to be a soldier serving in the military. The was her first and foremost priority. Falling in love hadn’t been on her agenda and therefore she wasn’t interested in being in a relationship with Jefferson. And being a bit oblivious when it came to that matter, she had no idea that Jefferson was both.

“You could try to apply as instructor. They’ll surely take you.”

Instructor was a good job, save and well payed. All the instructors, with their families, lived in a village near the academy. It was a nice and quiet place for a nice and quiet life. With a husband, kids and probably a dog. Considering both prison and protection bored Raphaela to death, she wouldn’t have much choice but to send her second application in for instructor. Which almost certainly meant, that she would eventually fall for Jefferson and merry him in the end. A depressing thought. Not because of Jeff but because it wasn’t even the tiniest bit exciting.

“No need for that much excitement.”

“Sorry. Yeah, I won’t have to many options, will I?”

“Gate duty?”

Jeff was smiling and making a joke. Gate duty was the lowest job the National Guard had to offer, the Gate was an old ring of stone. It was a portal to other worlds and sometimes travellers came through, but only rarely. In case of an attack, the Gate had a security system. The Gate Guards were just there for publicity reasons. Their entire job was it to stand next to the Gate and inform higher authorities if a traveller had come through.

“Why not, is about as exciting as-”

“Don’t you dare saying instructing!”

“I wanted to say prison duty. I mean, c’mon, I can spent my day talking to Jordan about how he tried to free the devil. Or did he want to free us from the devil? I can never remember. I guess I’ll just have to listen to him for the sixty-seventh time.”

“Wow, that’s patience. See, that’s why you’d make a great instructor.”

“Admit it, you just want me around and if I’d go for prison or military, no I won’t give up!, I would be too far away.”

“I know that you won’t give up. And okay, I admit it, I would like you being my neighbour.”

“I’d be a great neighbour. And who knows, if you one day managed to find a wife, our kids could play together.”

That was not even close to what Jefferson had imagined, but he didn’t say that. Saying, ‘I’d hoped you’d be my wife’ would be considered awkward by most people. Then again, Raphaela didn’t exactly care about awkward. If he’d said it, she would’ve most likely just shrugged her shoulders and responded with, ‘Okay, well, we’ll see about that when I get the job.’


	2. Chapter 2

Later that day, after Rapha learned that Jordan had indeed wanted to free the devil, she made her round through sector 4, violent, aggressive, and dangerous criminals, that couldn’t be kept with the others. Most of them were in solitary confinement. Most of jumpers, that’s what the novices in their fifths year were called, were afraid of sector 4, but Raphaela thought it was the most interesting sector. 

Last night a new convict had been brought in. However, he did not seem to be a dangerous criminal. He calmly sat on the wooden bench in his cell, looking at her tired and annoyed, but curiously. His cloths were all black and his boots seemed to be military stile. He waited for Rapha to say something.

“So, what did you do to end up in sector 4?”

“Nothing.”

“You don’t end in sector 4 for doing nothing. These cells are reserved for the crudest, most brutal, and most dangerous criminals. So, mass murderer?”

“You don’t seem to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not. Why should I? Especially, if you didn’t do anything.”

He laughed quietly, then rose and walked towards me.

“So, who are you?”

“Could ask you the same thing. But okay, my name is Raphaela Langley and I’m a jumper for the National Guard.”

“I’m Colonel John Sheppard. I came to this planet to make friends and ended as an apparently dangerous criminal.”

So, he came through the Gate. Interesting. Maybe this day might actually be a little less boring as the last few she had spent as guard.

“You’re a traveller? Where do you come from?”

“A planet called Earth. But it’s in another galaxy.”

“Then you are a long way from home. And I thought I was far from home.”

“Where do you come from?”

Rapha shrugged her shoulders, nobody really knew where she came from. Her family had come from a small village at the border of their country. But they had found her when Rapha was just an infant.

“What was it you were send here for?”

“I have no idea. Wish I knew.”

“What did they accuse you of in court?”

“I haven’t been to court. I arrived on this planet last night and was arrested and sent here immediately.”

“No trial, you say?”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

She definitely was. After all, this was a democracy, wasn’t it? With laws and justice. Raphaela had spent so many years working for a career as a soldier to serve this country. She was convinced that things had their order. It wouldn’t be the first time a criminal denied their crime. That’s what bothered her most about her time here, all the whining and begging that they were wrongly accused and that they should be free.

“I’m not surprised, I just don’t believe you. You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last to try and talk your way out of here.”

“I would argue that I am actually innocent, but I can see why you don’t believe me. In your position, I wouldn’t either.”

Raphael was a little astonished that the prisoner understood her, but it was quite nice.

“Tell me, why were you here? Certainly not just to make new friends.”

He shook his head, but didn’t answer at first, then he sighed again and sat back down.

“My team and I travel to worlds to look for allies and technologies in the war against the Wraith and the Replicators. We came here, hoping to find both here.”

“Your team? Were they arrested too?”

Sheppard shrugged his shoulders and fell silent. Apparently, they hadn’t for all he knew, and he probably would like it to stay that way.

“Anyway, it was quite interesting to talk to you. Now I have to return and make sure Jordan doesn’t try to summon the devil, again.”

“Again? He tried before?”

“Yeah, that’s what he’s in for. Or the murder he committed in order to do so. Given the chance, he might do it again.”

“So, I take it, he’s in this sector too?”

“No, Jordan is sector 3.”

“Mental institution sector, I guess.”

“Mentally disturbed criminals, yes.”

“How reassuring that I’m here then. Better a dangerous than a mentally disturbed criminal.”

Raphaela laughed and walked away. But as she went through the rest of her day, she could not forget about him, especially about what he said. He had seemed sincere when he said he hadn’t been to court. It certainly hadn’t been the first time a prisoner had claimed not to have been to court, but for some reason she believed that one. Which was, why she went back to him in the evening.

“How is it going, Colonel?”

The man had been resting on the bench, but now sat up, smiling a little forced,

“Not bad. I mean, I’m still in prison and still don’t know why, but asides from that, not bad.”

He spoke in a causal, easy tone, but his eyes were fixed on Raphael, assessing the situation closely.

“Aren’t your friends coming to bust you out?”

“Is there any chance for them to succeed if they did?”

“Not really. They most likely die trying, should they, by chance, survive, they will join you in the neighbouring cells.”

“I see.”

Sheppard leaned back against the wall, thinking for a moment, when he looked at her again, his expression had darkened. She now could actually imagine him being a dangerous criminal.

“You are here to get more information about them, aren’t you? You want to report to your superiors how to find them, to look better to them, so that you get a promotion.”

That was so absurd that Raphaela couldn’t help herself and burst into laughter.

“Far from it, my friend. If I’d look any better to my supervisor, he’d ask me to marry him on the spot.”

“And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Now, he looked almost amused, the darkness had lifted a little, making him look more like military man than a criminal.

“If you’re not here because of my friends, then why are you?”

A good question. One she didn’t have an actual answer for. She didn’t exactly believe him, but she didn’t care about telling on his friends either. There was no record of them being searched for, so either the government didn’t know about them, they didn’t care, or the friends didn’t exist. Considering there were Gate Guards she seriously doubted the first option and neither of the others gave her a reason to report anything.

“Well, you’re not quite as boring as the rest here.”

“I am more interesting than someone who’s summoned the devil? I am honoured.”

“Tried. Jordan tried to summon the devil. He was stopped before he began his second set of ritual murders.”

“Second set of ritual murders?”

“Yes. You see, to summon the devil, you apparently have to sacrifice three people of a certain group. Virgins, warriors, philosophers, healers, and guardians. Luckily, Jordan failed trying to take members of the National Guard’s military.”

“Wow, that’s… seriously messed up.”

“Yeah. Sure is. I was horrified the first two or three times I heard him tell stories about it. After the fiftieth time, I kind of lost the last bit of fascination I could muster for the abyss of human minds. You’re new, you’re more interesting.”

Sheppard nodded somewhat understanding and didn’t asked any more questions about Jordan. After a few minutes of silence, he changed the topic.

“So, what is the National Guard, exactly?”

“Rather obviously, it’s our national defence organisation. There’re ten different kinds of jobs you can do, Military Service, which I aspire, Prison Ward, Operator Protection, Instruction, State Surveillance, Border Patrol, Court Attendance, Crowd Control, Security Detail, Gate Duty. Most of them are far more boring than they sound. Protection is pretty much playing babysitter for our ministers, Surveillance is watching people, trying to find threats, Court means dealing with whiney criminals as much as here, just for less money and with more drama, Crowd Control and Security Detail are fancy names for keeping the order in the country, CC in Cities, Security everywhere else, but thanks to Surveillance, there ain’t much action, and Gate Guards do nothing but watch the Gate all day and report to the military if someone comes through.”

“And prions wardens have to deal with people like Jordan all day.”

“And you”, she reminded him, although it was meant more as a reminder for herself that he was in here for a reason.

“Have I told you about how I got here?”

"Something along the lines of, you came to this planet and were brought here directly.”

“Well, yes. Do you want to hear the entire story?”

Why not? She had nothing else to do anyway, except making sure no one escaped. She could keep an eye on sector 4 while chatting with him a little longer.

“I’m listening.”

“In the morning, well, it was morning on our planet, me and my team got ready for a mission.”

“What kind of mission?”

“Visiting other planets, to see if there are people there, if there are, we try to befriend them, see if they could be allies in the war against the Wraith and the Replicators. We also look for trading partners, food, technologies, whatever we can get. Same with this one. So, we went through the Gate and came out in a big hall. There were soldiers there, those you called Gate Guards, I suppose, about a dozen of them. As soon as they saw us, they pointed their guns at us, probably because of our weapons. They took them, then, and kept us there until more soldiers arrived. We were asked who our leader was, which I am, then they took me away. Which was when I last saw my friends.”

“Where did they take you?”

“An interrogation room. I don’t know how long I spent in there, answering their questions. It were the same few questions all the time: Who send me? Am I part of the insurgents? What we are planning next?”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“That’s what happened. After they decided I had no information to give them, I was brought here, where I have been ever since.”

Impossible, completely impossible. No advocate, no investigation, no court hearing. And what did he mean, insurgents? There was no insurgence. We would certainly have heard about that. That was ridiculous. Utterly ludicrous. 

When she didn’t react, Sheppard nodded slowly, but didn’t say anything else. After another few minutes of silence, Raphaela decided to leave, but when she walked away, he called after her. She turned back to him, seeing that he had risen from the bench, now standing in front of it.

“You still don’t believe me, do you?”

This actually surprised her, but not as much as what he said next.

“Looks like I’m going to stay here for a long time”

For the first time today, he looked tired and defeated. He sank down on the bank, resignation on his face. She had seen this expression many times, but never on someone who’s been here for only a day. The first few days, even weeks, they showed disgust, rage, anger, guilt, but they always knew, deep down that they deserved to be here. Sure, in the end, they all gave up, but never before appeal their sentence. So, unless he really had told her the truth… but that was impossible. Or was it? What had Josh said just that morning? They’re trying to shut the military down. No, that was too absurd, she was letting this man into her head. Stupid! Stupid and dangerous. She resolutely turned around again and walked away. This time, he didn’t try to stop her.


End file.
